A wide variety of seats is provided with headrests. For enhanced comfort or security reasons, the headrest may be adjustable. An adjusting mechanism may be provided which displaces a front surface of the headrest towards or away from the seat occupant. Simple mechanical mechanisms which require the user to manually adjust the headrest to a desired location may be used in some applications. However, in many cases, it is desirable that the headrest can be displaced in an automated manner.
Automated headrest adjusting mechanisms may be based on a pneumatic adjustment. However, a significant amount of tubing may be required for inflating and deflating inflatable bladders. To avoid such shortcomings, automated headrest adjusting mechanisms may include a motor and a mechanical transmission. Conventional headrest adjusting mechanisms have been designed such that the motor which ultimately drives the headrest displacement is located in the backrest of the seat. In such a configuration, installation space must be reserved in the backrest for installing the motor and, possibly, also the transmission in the backrest. This may be undesirable. For illustration, with an increasing number of functions which is integrated into modern vehicle seats, installation space may become an issue. Further, in conventional approaches, the design of the backrest and the design of the headrest mounted thereto must be specified to such an extent that interoperability can be ensured between the drive mechanism for headrest adjustment and the headrest that will be used. This may give rise to design limitations, for illustration in terms of interchangeability of components. Attaching the headrest to the seat may require dedicated working steps for coupling the drive mechanism to the headrest, which may add to costs.